


to love

by Mercia



Series: Femslash February 2019 [26]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Femslash February, Getting Together, Light Angst, Other, Platonic Soulmates, Pre-Poly, Romantic Soulmates, Sibling Bonding, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Thanks, gamora is a good older sister, thanos can choke, undetermined soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 07:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17956220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercia/pseuds/Mercia
Summary: Nebula is usually one for very little words, so Mantis does not think too much of it, the silence, but then she stands. And turns.And leaves.





	to love

Mantis didn't know about soulmates or soulmarks for a long time. Probably, because she hadn't known love. Ego, her former master, certainly couldn't. 

But then she'd met her Guardians, had adventures with them through space for months and endless escapades and such fun! And marks had begun appearing on her body. First Peter's name, in scrawling lines, then Rocket, then Drax, and Groot, and Gamora. 

And Mantis could look at them forever and trace the names with her fingers, and commit the shapes and curves of each scribble to her memory. The physical proof, here, inlaid onto her skin, marking it forever, that she had been loved, and her name on their skin which shows she, too, can love, in bright silver. 

Even though she is a Guardian of the Galaxy — of the universe, really, but they enjoy the alliteration — there's is much she doesn't know, about how the world works. Random and kind and cruel, but the writing on her skin, on her back, starting on her left shoulder blade, makes it seem infinitely more beautiful. 

They’ve been settled on  _ Terra,  _ Peter's Earth, for quite some time now, four of their months, at least, now that Thanos is gone.  It means they've been staying in one place, among other people, for longer. 

Mantis has been making so many friends!

And, there are a few familiar faces, too.

Tony, the one with the strange metal suit on Titan; the other Peter, who is no longer scared of her like he was when they first met; the magician, Strange, though she sees him very rarely and then only in passing; Thor, newly crowned King of New Asgard, who they picked up from the spaceship, and managed to brings people back, somehow. 

She has been spending downtime with Gamora's sister, actually, Nebula, and one of the Asgardians, Valkyrie. The former who she had helped soothe nightmares and what Mantis calls  _ daymares _ , or  _ wakemares _ , and the latter who had initially approached her out of cautious curiosity, drunk.

She's been eating her meals with them, sometimes bringing them lunch on the sparring arenas, or forcing her fellow Guardians to sit with them at dinner. Sometimes, she will just drag Nebula out on long walks through the Wakandan wildlife with her, or ask Valkyrie all those stories behind the stars again and again. 

It's the morning, the crack of dawn, and they're all three of them sitting up at the top of some trail through the mountains, at a cliff-edge. Valkyrie lets her weight rest gently on her, the orange light reflecting in her brown eyes, a bottle of gin in her hand; Nebula sits on her other side, just a few inches apart, one knee pulled up to her chin, her other leg hanging precariously off the edge, sharpening a knife. And Mantis feels the tell-tale sting of a name, a rune, a soul, being inscribed onto her skin. Beside her, she hears Valkyrie let out a hiss as well, a sudden intake of breath. Nebula’s frame stiffens. 

“Oh,” says Mantis, the first to speak. “That’s nice. We love each other.”

“I guess we do,” says Valkyrie, a small, genuine smile overtaking her expression. There’s such a soft look in her eyes. 

Nebula is usually one for very little words, so Mantis does not think too much of it, the silence, but then she stands. And turns. 

And leaves. 

* * *

Nebula hadn’t noticed it at first, because soulmarks are written on people's backs, and because she had been young and she hadn’t been thinking of love, just survival. 

But it had been after another upgrade, another one of Thanos’ adjustments for her, that she’d realised she could no longer feel the scars of her family’s names etched into her. 

Nebula has had other siblings, outside the Black Order, before Sanctuary; she had another father — two of them — and one mother. She had had two older brothers, and an older sister, and one younger sibling which was neither.

But their names are gone, and so are their bodies and so is their home. All gone. 

Nebula realises, in a universe where love marks a person, Thanos has left her without the ability to show how loved she is — was. 

The only mark she has on her back is his metal brand inlaid into the mechanics of her spine. A true child of Thanos.

But that was years ago.

She leaves Mantis and the Valkyrie, because it’s what they deserve, a moment alone to appreciate their soulmarks, and stubbornly ignores her stupid need to just stay there with them.

Instead, she goes to find Gamora. She could do with a spar, anyway. It’s no good to get rusty, literally, in her case.

Her sister is already in the arena, pinning Quill to the dirt, besting him in combat. Nebula lets loose the knife she was sharpening before and hurls it in her direction. Of course, Gamora catches it without batting an eye.

“Nebula,” greets Gamora with a triumphant smirk. “Here to spar?”

“Yes. And I will not be losing,” she replies, readying her stance and waiting for her sister to let Quill up.

“Hey Nebs,” says Quill, getting up and dusting himself off.

“Don’t call me that, Star-Kid,” she replies.

As usual, Peter shrugs and stalks off, probably to find some food or pick another fight with King Thor, or Rocket, or one of King T’Challa’s Dora Milaje. 

They fall into their usual rhythm, her sister and her. Nebula striking whenever the opportunity presents, going down only to get back up just as quickly. Gamora being more laid back, dancing in between the movements, acting on defense, before striking sharp and quick and ruthless. It’s always been this way. Even though Gamora usually wins, and they’re always copying and feeding off of each other. Watching, observing.

After, when Gamora has her yielding — though it is almost a draw, and Gamora has a cut on her cheek — pinned down, her sister says, “You gonna tell me what’s bothering you now?”

Nebula doesn’t speak, panting hard and sitting up. It’s pretty stupid anyway.

“Nebula,” says Gamora, reaching up to gently touch her shoulder. “We aren’t the most conventional, but we’re sisters.”

They’re the only ones in the arena, probably because the both of them tend to not hold back when it comes to each other, and so it's quiet and still.

“Come on, Nebula.”

Nebula looks hard at the ground, and breathes. “I don’t have any soulmarks,” she says quietly, “The way Fath—  _ Thanos  _ left me means I cannot form any, and that I don’t have any at all.”

“Oh,” she hears Gamora say, pity leaking into her voice, and Nebula hates it. 

“Yes. I cannot love. It’s a dumb problem for idiots. I know.”

Gamora is silent for a moment, and Nebula continues to look everywhere else but her sister’s face, and then she feels Gamora’s arms coming around her, tugging her in, warm, and she almost flinches away because Gamora is flesh and skin and bones, and Nebula is not, or at least most of her isn’t.

“It is not dumb, sister,” she says, “And you can love. I have proof, even if you don’t.”

And without asking for a response, Gamora brushes her hair back over her shoulder. Under the straps of her vest, on her shoulder blade, Nebula’s name peeks out, written in the messy hand of someone who doesn’t write a lot, in the language of her home. 

“At least I think it’s yours, unless I’m reading it wrong.”

Nebula can’t help it, she traces her name carefully, just under Peter’s name and above Groot’s. 

“Thanos can’t take away your ability to love, Nebula. We’re sisters, and this proves it. Believe it.”

Later, when they are at dinner, and Nebula is with the other Guardians for once, even allowing Groot and Drax to steal off her plate, she sees Mantis and the Valkyrie holding hands, approaching them. And they’re looking, reaching, for her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by this soulmate fic i read about steve but i cant remember what its called. where steve emerges from the serum unable to form bondmarks. 
> 
> anyways, pls kudos/comment!


End file.
